Brief Summary

The Moonfish (Mene maculata) is the only extant member of the genus Mene and of the family Menidae. The body is highly compressed laterally and very deep vertically. The ventral profle is steep, with a sharp ventral edge. The caudal (tail) fin is deeply forked. The mouth is small and protrusible. The body is silvery below and blue-green on the back, with three to four rows of dark gray spots on the upper side. The first two rays of the pelvic fin are greatly elongated, forming a prominent backward-pointing process on the underside of the fish. Moonfish may approach 30 cm in length. They are not common, but are wide-ranging in the Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, and in the western Pacific occur from Queensland (Australia) to Japan. (Randall 1995)